Donald A. Geffen

The dialectics of competency acquisition: pollution prevention in electric generation

Strategy researchers now recognize that distinctive competencies are critically important for sustained competitive advantage. The processes by which such competencies are acquired, however, has only started to be examined. Connections between macro-industrial system level properties and micro-developments in proprietary technology at the firm level need to be made. This paper argues that system-wide properties, such as long-standing elementary and opposing logics in societal forces like governments and markets, and micro-developments, such as the firms capacity to search for talent, technology, and ideas and to harmonize what it learns internally, can contribute in significant ways to the creation and acquisition of new competencies. Based on the case of pollution prevention in electric generation, it shows how the system-wide properties channel and direct the paths that the acquisition of new competencies take and how they interact with micro-developments at the firm level.

Business–Government Cooperation in Environmental Decision-Making

Abstract Environmental problems in the United States often are marked by adversarial relationships between businesses and government. Adversarial decision-making creates delays and often fails to achieve satisfactory results. Cooperative relationships might enable businesses and governments to better solve pressing environmental problems. In many instances, governments and businesses could achieve “win–win” environmental solutions that were good for the environment and economy. Though people in government and business endorse these approaches, efforts to put such principles into practice have proved difficult. This paper reviews the movement toward greater cooperation in environmental decision-making, showing both advances that have taken place and limits to further progress.